American Studies
College of Arts and Sciences

Undergraduate Director: Fred Gardaphe, European Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
Administrative Assistant: Marie Sweatt
Office: N-4073 Melville Library
Phone: (631) 632-1215
E-mail: Fred.Gardaphe@notes.cc.sunysb.edu


With the increase in migration and economic globalization and their impact on the culture of the United States and the Americas as a whole, scholars in many disciplines are examining, from interdisciplinary perspectives, the impact of the making of the Americas on world culture. The program in American Studies re-defines traditional disciplinary approaches, integrating and connecting new approaches to American studies that include a multicultural as well as a transnational understanding of the Americas. New methods of cultural analysis are introduced that challenge the power of comparative transnational histories to diversify political narratives of citizenship, homeland, and popular sovereignty. They also challenge how we understand others.

The interdisciplinary major in American studies introduces students to the rich variety of cultures, languages, and societies of the Americas. Students develop an in-depth knowledge of American culture beginning with core courses introducing interdisciplinary methods, through elective courses in a particular concentration, and synthesized by a capstone seminar.

Graduates with a major in American studies can expect to work in education, business, journalism, government, and politics. Combined with a science major, the major provides a good background for the health professions. Majors will also be prepared to move on to graduate study in business, education, the humanities, law, and social sciences.

Requirements for the Major in American Studies (AMR)
The major in American Studies leads to the Bachelor of Arts degree. Except where noted, all courses offered for the major must be passed with a letter grade of C or higher. Eighteen credits for the major must be earned in courses numbered 300 or higher.

Completion of the major requires 33 credits.

1. Core Courses
   1. AMR 101 Local and Global: National Boundaries and World-Systems
   2. AMR 102 Making American Identities
   3. AMR 301 Ethnicity and Race in U.S. History
   4. AMR 401 Senior Seminar in American Studies
2. Study of Another Language
   Six credits (or the equivalent of two semesters) of an intermediate-level language other than English appropriate to the student’s intended concentration, to be chosen in consultation with the undergraduate director. All coursework taken to satisfy this requirement must be passed with a letter grade of C- or higher.
3. Concentration Requirement
   Students must take five courses from any of the following groups, and two additional courses from any other of the groups. At least 12 credits must be at the 300 or 400 level.
   Arts in Society
   • AFH 206 Great Books of the Black Experience
   • AFH/HUF 212 French Caribbean Literature
   • AFH/HUF 213 Caribbean and American Connection in Literature
   • AFH/EGL 249 African-American Literature and Music in the 19th and 20th Centuries
   • AFH 329, 300 Pan-African Literature I, II
   • AFH 339/ARH 329 Arts of the African Diaspora
   • AFS 463, 464 The Media and Black America I, II
   • CLT 235 American Pluralism in Film and Literature
   • CLT 320 Multicultural Experience in American Literature
   • EGL 217, 218 American Literature I, II
   • EGL 226 Contemporary American Literature: 1945 to the Present
   • EGL 320 Literature of the 20th Century
   • EGL 367 Contemporary African-American Literature
   • EGL 369 Topics in Ethnic Studies in Literature
   • EGL 378 Contemporary Native American Fiction
   • EGL 379 Native American Texts and Contexts
   • HIS 361 American History/American Film
   • HUI 333 The Italian-American Experience in Literature
   • HUI 338 Images of Italian Americans in Film
   • HUS 371 United States Latino Literature
   • HUS 390 Latin American Cinema
   • MUS 109 Rock Music
   • MUS 304 Contemporary Traditions in American Music: 1900 to the Present
   • MUS 308 History of Jazz
   • MUS 310 Music and Culture of the 1960s
   
   American Peoples
   • AFS 239 Introduction to the Caribbean Experience
   • AFS 240 Issues in Caribbean Society
   • AFS/HIS 388 Slavery in Latin America and the Caribbean
   • AFS/ANT 395 Religions of the Caribbean
   • ANT 201 Peoples of South America
   • ANT 219 Peoples of the Caribbean
   • ANT 353 Archaeological Analysis and Interpretation
   • ANT 362 Long Island Archaeology
   • ANT 385 Prehistoric Peoples of the Americas
   • ANT 392 Topics in American Cultural Alternatives
   • HIS 385 Aztec Civilization
   • HIS 389 Modern Mexico
   • HIS 421, 422 Colloquia in Latin American History
   • HUS 254 Latin America Today
   • HUS 361 Latin-American Literature
   • LAC 200 Introduction to Latin American and Caribbean Studies
   • LIN 200 Language in the United States
   • LIN 307 Sociolinguistics
   • POL 214 Modern Latin America
   • POL 382 Politics and Political Change in Latin America
   • SOC 364 Sociology of Latin America
   • SPN 392 The Culture and Civilization of Spanish America
   • SPN 395, 396 Introduction to Spanish-American Literature I, II
   • SPN 405 Issues in Hispanic Cultural Studies
   • SPN 415 Hispanic Cultures in Contact
   • SPN 420 Topics in Spanish and Latin American Cinema
   • SPN 435 Topics in Latin American Literature from the Colonial Period to the Present
     History and Politics
   • AFS/HIS 325 The Civil Rights Movement
   • AFS 372 African-American Political Thought
   • AFS 375 Slavery
   • AFS/POL 418 Legal Processes and Social Structure
   • HIS 103 American History to 1877
   • HIS 104 United States Since 1877
   • HIS 213 Colonial Latin America
   • HIS/POL 214 Modern Latin America
   • HIS/POL 216 History of U.S.-Latin American Relations
   • HIS 250 The Second World War, 1939-1945
   • HIS 262 American Colonial Society
   • HIS 326 History of Popular Culture
   • HIS 362 Making Peace with the Sixties
   • HIS 365 Environmental History of North America
   • HIS 369 American Social History to 1860
   • HIS 370 U.S. Social History, 1860-1930
   • HIS 396 Topics in U.S. History
   • HIS 411-414 Colloquia in American History
   • POL 102 Introduction to American Government
   • POL 320 Constitutional Law and Politics: United States
   • POL 324 American Politics Parties and Pressure Groups
   • POL 325 Civil Liberties and Civil Rights
   • POL 326 Politics of New York State
   • POL 327 Urban Politics
   • POL 328 Criminal Law
   • POL 344 American Political Ideology and Public Opinion
   • POL 367 Mass Media in American Politics
     Ethnicity, Race, Gender and Philosophy
   • AFH/PHI 379 Philosophy of Race
   • AFS/WST 350 Black Women and Social Change: A Cross-Cultural Perspective
   • AFS 101, 102 Themes in the Black Experience I, II
   • AFS/HIS 277 The Modern Color Line
   • AFS 300 Blacks in the City
   • AFS 310 American Attitudes toward Race
   • AFS 319 The Politics of Race
   • AFS 360 African-American Social Commentary
   • AFS 370 The African-American Family
   • ANT 356 Urban Anthropology
   • AFS/ANT 380 Race and Ethnicity in Latin America and the Caribbean
   • HIS/WST 333 Women in U.S. History
   • HIS/WST 374 Historical Perspectives on Gender Orientation
   • HIS/WST 387 Women, Development and Revolution in Latin America
   • HIS 397 Topics in History of U.S. Immigration and Ethnicity
   • HUI/WST 237 Images of Italian-American Women
   • HUI 236 The Italian-American Scene
   • HUI 336 Italian Americans and Ethnic Relations
   • JDS/HIS 226 The Shaping of Modern Judaism
   • PHI 310 American Philosophy
   • PHI 378 Philosophical Topics in Asian-American History
   • PHI/WST 383 Philosophical Issues of Race and Gender
   • POL/WST 330 Gender Issues in the Law
   • POL/WST 347 Women and Politics
   • SOC/WST 247 Sociology of Gender
   • SOC 302 American Society
   • SOC 310 Ethnic and Race Relations
4. Upper-Division Writing Requirement
   All students are required to write a term paper for AMR 301, which is evaluated by the instructor for its evidence of upper-division writing ability. Students whose writing is judged satisfactory will have fulfilled the upper-division writing requirement. Students who do not fulfill the requirement in AMR 301 must submit to the major advisor, no later than the first semester of the senior year, a portfolio of papers written for subsequent upper-division courses taken for the major and must achieve an evaluation of satisfactory on the portfolio.

1. Only three credits of AMR 447 Directed Readings, AMR 487 Independent Research, or AMR 488 Internship may be used to satisfy major requirements.
2. Students should consider the prerequisites to upper-division courses for the major when choosing elective and D.E.C. courses.
3. Other relevant courses, including special topics courses offered by other departments, may be substituted for major requirements with permission of the undergraduate director.

1. AMR 101 Local and Global: National Boundaries and World-Systems
2. AMR 102 Making American Identities
3. AMR 301 Ethnicity and Race in American History
4. AMR 401 Senior Seminar in American Studies
5. Three additional courses selected from the approved list of courses (available from the undergraduate director) at the 300 or 400 level, chosen in consultation with the program advisor.

Mary Jo Bona, Women’s Studies
Helen Cooper, English; Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Roman de la Campa, Hispanic Languages and Literature
Fred Gardaphe, European Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
Anthony Hurley, Africana Studies
Aisha Kahn, Africana Studies; Anthropology
Ned Landsman, History
Brooke Larson, History, Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Gary Mar, Philosophy
Donna Rilling, History
Christopher Sellers, History
Jane Sugarman, Music
Antonio Vera Leon, Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Kathleen Vernon, Hispanic Languages and Literature